Fate of KZN, Gauteng PECs hanging by a thread as ANC NEC meets to decide their future

The ANC national executive committee (NEC) is gathering for one of its most important meetings this weekend — to decide the fate of two of its provincial executive committees (PECs).

After the May 29 elections when the ANC lost its majority, the party has been debating whether the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng PECs have to be dissolved.

The two provinces were the ANC's biggest losers at the polls, dropping from more than 50% to 36% of the vote in Gauteng, while in KwaZulu-Natal the party declined from 54.2% in 2019 to 17%.

Last year the Sunday Times reported an axe hangs over the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng PECs after most national working committee (NWC) members favoured disbanding the structures. But the NWC stopped short of making this recommendation to the NEC after President Cyril Ramaphosa is said to have thwarted the move.

ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile and deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane also pushed back against moves to disband the two provinces, telling the Sunday Times in separate interviews they would not support such a call.

Mashatile and Mokonyane agree it would be self-defeating to disband the PECs while the party attempts to rebuild after its devastating election results. 

Mashatile said the NEC was likely to opt to “reinforce” the PECs by roping in strong local leaders in each of the provinces.

“I would use the word reinforce because disbanding structures is not a solution I favour,” he said at the time.

Mokonyane said the NEC should exhaust all options before any disbandment.

“When you renew, you don't bring a big rubbish bin. You look at what you have. Is it able to take you through this transition? And that's what we must do with KZN. We've not done that. We can come back, we will disband when all else has failed, not the first step,” she said.

The NEC could not deny its own responsibility for the election decline, she added. But the party's secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, and a dozen other NEC members, are said to be in support of disbandments.

In a media briefing, Mbalula did not rule out the possible disbandment of the two structures.

“Disbandment can be taken if it has to be taken to intervene in response to that situation. It is part of the options we'll look at when we meet before the NEC meeting. If we agree, we'll table it to the NEC, and then we implement as leaders tasked with taking the party to its next conference,” said Mbalula.

“Disbandment is not the only option you can arrive at in these provinces, but there's no way the status quo can continue as if it is business as usual. You've got to respond to that situation and it is the NEC that must do that.”

Several other NEC members TimesLIVE has spoken to have also said the status quo in the two provinces could not continue. They hinted there was not a lot of pushback against disbanding KwaZulu-Natal, which they believed was almost a foregone conclusion.

They could not say the same about Gauteng where the ANC is running the government in the province, unlike in KZN.

TimesLIVE